by Richard Blakley
President Trump gave a wonderfully encouraging speech at a rally celebrating his first hundred days in office, where he spoke of the numerous actions his administration has already accomplished. The speech covered the progress that Trump is making to return common sense, decency, protection, and logical thought to America.
Prior to his rally, President Trump granted an exclusive interview to ABC’s Senior National Correspondent, Terry Moran. Watching the attitude and hearing the questions of Moran made you think of Hitler’s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda for Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. The interview made one ask, “For whom is ABC News really working?” They’re obviously not working to help the American people, or the president.
Propaganda
In 2019, Yulchiro Kakutani, Washington Free Beacon reporter, posted an article accusing the Chinese Communist Party of “routinely” breaking “federal law by not disclosing how much it spent to publish regime propaganda” through an advertisement section titled China Daily. China Daily looked like regular news being published in U.S. newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for The Washington Post stated that the newspaper had run China Daily ads for “more than 30 years.” But research shows that the CCP didn’t disclose its activities to the Department of Justice until 2012, violating federal law, and continued to fail to provide breakdowns of spending activities, which further violated federal law.
Kakutani reported that the CCP “has run more than 700 online ads designed to look like news articles and purchased 500 print pages in six American newspapers over the last seven years.” At the time, Representative Jim Banks, R-IN (now a senator), charged that American newspapers had “traded credibility for ad revenue…. These outlets claim to support democracy, but they’ve participated in a cover-up for an ongoing communist-run genocide.” The Free Beacon stated, “Democracy died in the darkness, but it pays well.”
Kakutani said that China Daily is “flush with money…including $11.8 million that the paper’s Beijing office wired to the U.S. branch over the past year” (2019).
A Post spokesperson defended the ads, claiming that the Post gives “wide latitude” to advertisers if the ads don’t break any laws.
Well, these ads broke federal law.
Fake news, real payoffs
In 2021, China Daily reported its activities as required by U.S. law. Financial reports showed that The New York Times had received $50,000, Foreign Policy magazine had received $291,000, The Des Moines Register had received $34,600, CQ Roll Call had received $76,000, Time magazine had received $700,000, the Financial Times had received $371,577, and the Los Angeles Times had received $272,000. Over $1 million went to others. China Daily spent $11,002,628 on advertising in U.S. newspapers and $265,822 advertising on Twitter. The Daily Caller reported that CCP-controlled China Daily had paid more than $4.6 million to The Washington Post and nearly $6 million to The Wall Street Journal.
From November 2016 to April 2020, payments were made to The Seattle Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Chronicle, and The Boston Globe. Payments of $657,523 were made to the Los Angeles Times.
From May to October of the election year 2020, China Daily spent over $2 million in advertising and $4.4 million in printing, distribution and administration. Periodicals receiving money for ads included the Los Angeles Times ($340,000), The Wall Street Journal ($85,000), and Foreign Policy magazine ($100,000); those receiving money for printing costs included the Los Angeles Times ($110,000), the Houston Chronicle ($92,000), and The Boston Globe ($76,000).
Is it any wonder Trump calls legacy media “fake news”?
In the ABC interview with Trump, Moran (or, perhaps better, “Moron”) kept trying to press Trump on what Trump called a “stupid question.” Concerning Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Moran asked Trump, “Did you take him to the woodshed?” Moran was referring to the use of the encrypted messaging Signal app, deemed “best practice” for “highly targeted” government officials according to Biden-era documentation. Even the CIA director stated, “Signal was loaded onto my computer at the CIA,” and was considered “a permissible work use.” It should be noted this app was deemed most appropriate by the Biden administration—after he lost the 2024 election. What a coincidence.
In response to Moran’s question about the “woodshed,” Trump said, “I had a good talk with him, and whatever I said, I probably wouldn’t be inclined to tell you, but we had a good talk.”
Stupid questions
Pressing further, as any good propagandist would, Moran stated, “You have 100% confidence in Pete Hegseth.” Trump answered, “I don’t have 100% confidence in anything, okay? Anything. Do I have 100%—it’s a stupid question…. Only a liar would have 100% confidence. I don’t have 100% confidence that we’re gonna finish this interview.”
Speaking of stupid questions, Moran asked Trump about Trump’s decision to revoke security clearances for former members of Biden’s administration, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and a host of others. Instead of asking why these people had their security clearances revoked, a better question to ask is, “Why would anyone be allowed to keep a security clearance, who is no longer serving in a government position that requires a security clearance?” People interested in keeping security clearances after their position has ended should be asked whether they are planning to sell information or find out things for the purposes of insider trading—like the former CIA Director of the Counterterrorist Center who joined the International Energy Group Burisma, which had formerly employed Hunter Biden and which Biden’s own State Department called corrupt.
Who would even question the removal of no-longer-needed security clearances other than someone who wanted U.S. secret information, like China? So for whom does Moran work?
Moran even badgered Trump about the deportation of illegal alien criminal gangs, stating, “Under our law, every person who gets deported gets a hearing.” Trump responded, “when Biden allowed 21 million people to flow into a country…did we give them a hearing when they came in?”
Trump is correct. A vetting is required for legal immigration. These people are illegal immigrants. Trump put in place an Executive Order classifying certain groups as foreign terrorist organizations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, following the president’s order and following the law, did the research and posted on the Federal Register which groups are Foreign Terrorist Organizations. By law, at that point, they are subject to immediate deportation. Considering the crimes that some of these people have committed, deportation seems very lenient.
Unprecedented times
Moran asked Trump if he trusted Vladimir Putin. Trump responded, “I don’t trust you. Look at you. You’re so happy to do the interview, and then you start hitting me with these fake questions.”
And then there were many more “stupid” questions, causing Trump to say “you are not being very nice.”
Why does ABC News have access to the president?
The reason that President Trump acts the way he does is that unprecedented times call for unprecedented actions.
Unfortunately, instead of covering the truth, legacy media is selling out our country and democracy—for a buck.
Reprinted with the permission of American Thinker. Visit its archive of articles by Richard Blakley.
